Favorite thing people have asked me all week:

Your job must be pretty cool, huh?

It really, really is.

Mary Brenna is just about to graduate and head off to school, but not before her parents were able to convince her to come and see me! She arrived without frills, free of make up, and guitar in hand. Her natural look was the perfect contrast to our industrial art park shooting location. The next 2 hours were spent laughing, discovering locations I’ve never photographed before, and watching for snakes and broken glass. (Modeling is hard!) I don’t think I took a single photo of her not smiling. She has the most infectious smile and laugh of anyone I’ve ever met. She’s an extremely talented musician and she even gives me a Janis Joplin vibe in her photos. And now I feel really old because I used the word “vibe” and am talking about Janis Joplin.

It was such a pleasure hanging out with Brenna. Such a natural beauty. I feel like I made a friend. Enjoy just these few. I’d show all 40 if I could!

I am really enjoying these short and sweet mini sessions with Dr. Burch’s patients. This time I got to work with the very talented and completely gorgeous Alexandra. She’s already taking college courses at 16 and is an actress. I could not say the same when I was her age! And now that’s she’s got the braces off she’s unstoppable!

Before all this crazy rain we had just enough sunshine to let me sneak in a mini session with Sabrina! She just recently got her braces taken off and was ready to show off her new, perfect smile! Check out just a few from our session…

Mackenzie is another one of my senior girls who is just inches away from graduation and college. Knowing that we’d be heading out to Maclay Gardens for another senior session, I wanted to be sure that hers was different. Once again we found a couple of lesser photographed areas off the beaten path to make her photo session unique and special. I also met with Mackenzie prior to her session to discuss clothing, accessories, etc and asked if she had one thing she wanted to bring that really symbolized her right now in her life. The answer seemed obvious – her gorgeous, sky blue Mustang! So I made the case for bringing it along! I told her that if there was one thing I wish I had a picture of from high school, it would be me in front of my 91 Volkswagon Cabriolet so this was something she’d definitely want to remember down the road.

Mackenzie’s shoot was too easy! She’s is such a beauty and mastered the direction I gave her so effortlessly.  It felt like we were just out there hanging out in the gardens rather than out on a shoot! One of my favorite things about her images are that even when she is holding a serious gaze, she’s still smiling the smallest little grin. Her resulting images are warm and inviting and make you feel like you’ve known her for years.

Good luck to you, Mackenzie!  Enjoy these last few days of childhood! College is going to be amazing!

Though I know she was wearing just a little, Juliana is the kind of beauty that could go her whole life and never wear make up. She is so unbelievably naturally gorgeous! Maclay Gardens was the obvious location choice for her for sure. With graduation only weeks away, we had to get her session in fast before it was too late! I’ve literally spent the last hour trying to narrow down which images to show on the blog because it was so hard to choose my favorites. Flashing her winning smile or striking a super serious fashion pose, Juliana completely owned this Senior Session.  I hope these help her to remember this time in her life because everything is going to change so much from this point on! Good luck, Juliana!

Here’s another Tampa Session from my time helping out at Launch Workshop. I met the gorgeous Zoe and her friend Ebay and together they helped me show the attendees how to work with a little back lighting and motion. The more time we spent with the two of these girls the more we asked ourselves – were we ever THIS beautiful when we were 17?? Ha! Thank you again, ladies! It was lovely to work with you!

Wow, where have I been? It seems like I’m out of town nearly every weekend lately! This past weekend I was honored to have been invited to guest teach at Stacy Larsen‘s Launch 2 Workshop at her studio in Tampa Florida. I met the most amazing group of ladies in Tampa, most of whom had already met each other by attending the first Launch Workshop. Part of my job there was to assist Stacy with showing the girls our different styles of shooting, how to pose, how to find light, and how to get emotion out of our clients. I’m going to be taking a few blog posts here and there to show some of the images I took while I was at there and talk about what we were trying to achieve. This time around I’m focusing on the “beauty shot” which has become extremely popular with high school senior photography lately. I love taking this kind of picture. The shallow depth of field and juicy color you can get in something like this is to die for! Going through these pictures, I realized that I didn’t take much time to get my gorgeous model, Emily, to smile only because I was doing more talking than shooting! I can’t wait to see what the girls I was working with were able to achieve using some of the tips I demoed. Here are just a few of mine.

10 Questions with Morgan

School:
Lincoln High

How would you describe your personal style?
I like timeless and classic, but somewhat laid back at the same time. My favorite is the “trying hard without making it look like you tried to hard” look.

Favorite catch phrase?
“excuse you?”

What makes you smile?
The feeling of accomplishment. Along with seeing my loved ones smile, especially if I had some part in making that smile come to be.

Favorite Food?
Reheated Papa Johns Meat lovers pizza, always and forever.

Favorite places to shop?
Anywhere I can find cute things cheap. I have mad shopping skills.

Got any guilty pleasures?
Late night Facebook “research” sessions…don’t lie, you do it too.

What are you most looking forward to senior year?
Graduation! Duhhhhhh.

Plans after graduation:
TCC then FSU for bachelors, masters, and eventually Ph.D. in psychology. I dream big people.

In 10 years what/where do you hope to be?
The where is subject to change. But the what is: running my psychology office specializing in family counseling. I will have a doctor husband and two children-one boy, one girl. Oh, and a German shepherd. Yes, I’m a planner and there are a hundred more details to my “fairy-tale future” but I decided not to share (:

View Cierra’s full gallery slide show

10 Questions with Cierra

School:
Rickards High

How would you describe your personal style?
I’m the quirky girl-next-door

Favorite catch phrase?
How you doiiin’? -Wendy Williams

What makes you smile?
My niece, my friends, and optimistic thoughts of the future.

Favorite Food?
All seafood

Favorite places to shop?
Forever 21, WetSeal

Got any guilty pleasures?
Pretty Little Liars!

What are you most looking forward to senior year?
Prom, Senior Trip, and Graduation of course ☺

Plans after graduation:
Attending an HBCU in North Carolina

In 10 years what/where do you hope to be?
Working to obtain my PhD in Psychology

 

Jake and my brother are roommates in New York where Jake is an actor. When he heard that I was making a trip to Birmingham that coincided with his own, he didn’t hesitate to contact me about taking his head shots for him. Jake actually used to live in Birmingham (also with my brother) and knew the area much better than I, so I asked him to pick the place and I would follow him. We met early that Friday morning in downtown Birmingham and pulled off these lovely numbers. Jake may be an actor, but he could definitely also be a model! Hello casting director for Twilight. I think we’ve found your next sparkly vampire!

Thanks Jake, for being so much fun to hang out with. I think I will take being the “girl version of Eian” as a compliment.